Inflation, based on the official consumer price index (CPI), stood at 8.69 % for cereals in May, and almost twice as much (17.14%) for pulses.
These rates would probably have been higher, but for the sales from buffer stocks, especially of wheat and chana (chickpea), built by government agencies during surplus production years.
In 2022-23 (April-March), 34.82 lakh tonnes (lt) of the cereal was offloaded from the Food Corporation of India’s (FCI) stocks in the open market to boost supplies.
That included 6.73 lt processed into flour and sold under the ‘Bharat Atta’ brand at a maximum retail price of Rs 27.5/kg.
How buffer in chana helpedPrices of pulses have been on fire, with retail inflation in double digits since June 2023.
Inflation, based on the official consumer price index (CPI), stood at 8.69 % for cereals in May, and almost twice as much (17.14%) for pulses.
These rates would probably have been higher, but for the sales from buffer stocks, especially of wheat and chana (chickpea), built by government agencies during surplus production years.
Take wheat. In 2022-23 (April-March), 34.82 lakh tonnes (lt) of the cereal was offloaded from the Food Corporation of India’s (FCI) stocks in the open market to boost supplies. Such sales, mainly to flour millers at market prices determined through e-auctions, rose to a record 100.88 lt in the following fiscal. That included 6.73 lt processed into flour and sold under the ‘Bharat Atta’ brand at a maximum retail price of Rs 27.5/kg.
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The FCI’s open market sale scheme brought down retail inflation in cereals and wheat, from their respective highs of 16.73% and 25.37% in February 2023 to 8.69% and 6.53% in May 2024. While not-so-good crops in the last three years had depleted wheat stocks in government warehouses from their peak of 603.56 lt on July 1, 2021 to 285.10 lt and 301.45 lt on the same date of 2022 and 2023, these were enough for the FCI’s open market intervention.
How buffer in chana helped
Prices of pulses have been on fire, with retail inflation in double digits since June 2023.
